Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/486

 TACKETT

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TALIAFERRO

Tackett, John (1815-1891).

John Tackett was born in Iluntsville, Alabama, November 27, 1815, and began to practise at Cooksville, Mississippi, the spring after his graduation at Louis- ville Medical College in 1844 and two years later moved to Richland. His wife was Bettie Dulaney, and he had five children.

In 1847 he performed Cesarean section successfully alone. This case was re- ported to the " New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal" by Dr. B. Harvey, and the operation was quoted by Dr. Paul F. Eve in his book of "Remarkable Surgical Cases, " in very complimentarj^ terms.

In 1861 he enUsted in the Confederate army as surgeon, but was subsequently called home by a petition to the governor from the fathers and the husbands of families in and near Richmond, who wished him to remain and provide for the health, comfort and protection of their wives and children.

He died in Richland, Mississippi, December 3, 1891 of pneumonia.

Transactions of the Mississippi State Medical Association, 1892.

Taliaferro, Valentine Ham (1831-1887). Valentine Ham Taliaferro, gynecolo- gist, born in Oglethorp County, Georgia, on September 24, 1831, was a descendant of one Zachariah Taliaferro an early colonial and the son of Charles B. and Mildred Meriwether. As a boy he went to the local schools and Kellog Academy then graduated M. D. from the Univer- sity of New York in 1852, soon after marrjang Mary A., daughter of his old preceptor, Dr. B. O. Jones of Atlanta. He had four daughters and two sons one of whom, Valentine Ham, became a doctor. During the Civil War he was surgeon to the Second Georgia Cavalry

and organized the Tenth Brigade of the same. At the end of the war he was brevet brigadier-general.

In 1857 Dr. Taliaferro became pro- fessor of materia medica in Oglethorp College, Savannah, and successively pro- fessor of diseases of women and children in the Atlanta Medical College ; of obstet- rics and diseases of women there and dean in 1876. In 1881 he successfully started a private infirmary for the dis- eases of women, the first of its kind in the South.

As a writer he did good work, co-edit- ing and writing for the " Medical and Lit- erary Weekly," "The Hygienic and Literary Magazine," and the "Oglethorp Medical and Surgical Journal," Sa- vannah.

Among his writings are: "Medication by the Use of Uterine Tents in the Diseases of the Body and Cavity of the Uterus," 1871; "The Application of Pressure in Diseases of the Uterus, Ova- ries and Peri-uterine Structures, "1882; "Intrauterine Tampon for Dilating the Uterus and Securing Better Drainage in Diseases of the Endometrium," 1884.

Between the years 1882-1886 Dr. Taliaferro made a valuable contribution to gynecological literature in a paper on "Intrauterine Tampon," for purpose of Dilating the Uterus, Securing Better Drainage, and Treating Diseases of the Endometrium." This paper was pub- lished in the "Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal."

He was known as a skillful gynecolo- gist and one keenly interested in medical progress and his fellowmen. In the autumn of 1887 he was persuaded by his friends to take a rest at Tate Springs, Tennessee, but, too ill to operate just before leaving, he took with him some patients, among them a charity case and the last operation he ever did was for her.